Ok, so I have been completely spoiling my ferrets by not putting them in
their cages for about the past three or four days (they're kept in my
bedroom with the door shut).  I'm starting to remember why I kept them
caged at night in the first place!
 
Yesterday morning I was awakened by Miss Lola-bop sticking her nose in my
ear and sniffling loudly.  Very tickly, but not that bad.
 
Then, this morning at around 4, I was awakened by this same Lola-pants,
under my covers, apparently trying to dig a tunnel underneath my legs.
I figured she wanted more space, so I moved my legs.  No deal-- she
followed them and continued to scratch-scratch-scratch with her sharp
little claws.  The only way I could get her to stop was to get up and
play with her-- "if I'm awake, then it's time to play!  I don't care if
it's 4 in the morning!"  If I stopped and tried to lie back down she'd
start scritching again.  Eventually she tired out and went back to
wherever she had been hiding, and I went back to sleep.
 
However, approximately an hour later, I got another wake-up call-- this
time in the form of Pukka trying to drag me out of bed by my toe!  I
tried very hard to ignore her, but this is nearly impossible with Pukka's
special brand of ankle-chomping.  Once again, the only way to stop her
was to get up and play.  (you may ask why I didn't just cage them then--
the answer is that at any one time, only one ferret was visible, and
caging one and not the others would mean the cage would be shut if the
free ferret wanted food or water.)  Luckily Miss Pukka-fuzz got bored of
this quickly.
 
Then, about half an hour before my alarm went off, I woke up to the
disctinctive "flump" of Sebastian throwing himself against the bed and
hauling himself up.  Happily, all he wanted to to was curl up with me and
cuddle.  Suffice it to say it was an interesting night!
 
Oh, and about the candle thing: Pukka has occasionally tried to sniff
fire, and she almost lit her tail turning away once!  Candles go way up
on the dresser in my room now.
 
Rachel and the "party all night!!" ferrets, Lola, Pukka, and Sebastian
 
=====
"Go ahead, call the cops
You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops"
 
                      -- Tom Waits
[Posted in FML issue 3966]